People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist)

Vol. XXXIII

No.
29

July
19, 2009

Iraq: Sham US
Withdrawal

Yohanan Chemarapally

JUNE
30 was declared a national holiday by the Iraqi government to mark the
formal
withdrawal of American occupation troops from the cities and town. The
supporters of the American backed Iraqi government celebrated as the
last of
the American soldiers retreated to sanctuary of their bases. Walls were
festooned with slogans describing the occasion as “national sovereignty
day”
and “independence day”, as Iraqi police and army took control of
security in
urban areas after the withdrawal of American forces. The US president Barack Obama had promised
the
speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq during his
presidential
campaign.

In
his much-publicised Cairo speech in
June, president
Obama had also promised that the US
would not retain any military bases in Iraq. But if recent
developments
are any indication, the US
president is taking his own sweet time to fulfill his pledges. In fact,
many
observers of the West Asian scene are of the view that the Obama
administration
while reducing the number of troops in Iraq
will keep the actual combat forces of around 50,000 on the ground in Iraq
much
beyond the withdrawal deadline of 2012. They also feel that the US military would be reluctant to leave
the five
huge military bases they have built in Iraq at considerable cost.

CLAIMS OF FULL MILITARY

WITHDRAWAL RING HOLLOW

Some
of the US military
bases,
like the ones in Baghdad and Mosul actually
fall within city limits.
Therefore American claims of a full military withdrawal from Iraqi
cities rings
hollow. American forces have been told to keep a low profile and make
large
scale troop movements only in the stealth of the night. More than
120,000
American soldiers along with 132, 000 US
military contractors remain in Iraq
belying the claims of the Iraqi prime minster, Nouri al Malliki that
his forces
can handle security matters on its own. 36,000 of the military
contractors are
American citizens.

Maliki
is trying to portray the withdrawal of US troops as “an end of American
occupation”. He did not mention that around 50,000 US
trainers will remain embedded with Iraqi security forces till the US
forces
completely withdraw from the country. Iraq’s interior minister,
Jawad
al-Bolani was more circumspect. “June 30 is not an historical end point
to be
celebrated by political philosophers; it is the beginning of a highly
uncertain
chapter in Iraqi democracy and self governance”, Bolani wrote in the
Washington
Post.

One
of the leading resistance groups - the Islamic Army of Iraq, issued a
statement, which said that if anyone has the right to celebrate
victory, it
should be the resistance. “They are the ones who brought the occupation
to a
despicable defeat”, the statement said.Iraqi opposition leaders urged Iraqis to keep on resisting the
Americans
until the last US
soldier had left the country. The Association of Muslim Scholars, which
has
taken an uncompromising stance against the occupation, issued a
statement
calling upon Iraqis “across the spectrum” to keep up the resistance.

Both
the Islamic Army, known to have close links with the Ba’ath Party of
Saddam
Hussein as well as other militant groups called on Iraqis to desist
from
sectarian killings. The radical Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr described
the
withdrawal of American forces as a “mere media event”. He highlighted
the
continuing presence of American military personnel, including
intelligence
agencies and security contractors, in Iraqi cities. Sadr said that
Iraqis want
American withdrawal from all aspects of Iraqi life, not just on the
military
front.

The
US has invested huge
amounts
to build gargantuan bases in Iraq.
The Al Asad Base, the biggest one, was built at the cost of more than
$100
million. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between the
US and the Iraqi
governments, all US
combat troops have to leave Iraq by the
middle of next year. By 2011, even the US trainers and advisers
have to
quit the country. The SOFA agreement is however silent about the status
of the
military contractors after 2011. They may very well stay on after 2011.Senior American officials and politicians as
well as some prominent Iraqis have already started making demands that
the US
forces
should be allowed to stay on for an indefinite period. The US Army
Chief of
Staff, Gen George Casey told the Washington
media in late May that the Pentagon was planning for a “reality
scenario” in
which the US will
have
combat troops in both Iraq
and Afghanistan
for at least ten years more.

Other
US military
commanders have
recently said that the American military presence in Iraq
could last for another 15-20
years. Article 27 of the SOFA agreement allows the US
forces to undertake military operation “or any other measure” inside Iraq’s borders “in the event of any
internal or
external threat or aggression against Iraq”. The commander of US
forces
in Iraq,
Gen Ray Odierno told reporters on June 30, that “we want to make sure
that we
have enough forces on the ground to ensure good, legitimate and
credible
elections”, scheduled to be held in January. Odierno was earlier quoted
in the
American media as saying that between 30,000-50,000 American troops may
remain
in Iraq
beyond the 2011 deadline.

Iraqis
are due to hold a referendum on SOFA on July 30, this year. According
to an
opinion poll, 73 per cent of all Iraqis oppose the presence of foreign
troops
on their soil. If the majority vote is against the SOFA, then American
troops
will have to accelerate their withdrawal from Iraq
much before their scheduled
departure in 2011. Washington
is pressuring the Malliki government against holding the scheduled
referendum.

In
the run-up to the withdrawal of the American soldiers from the
populated urban
areas, insurgents had set off bombs in crowded civilian areas. The
month of
June was the bloodiest month this year for Iraqi civilians as well as
American
and Iraqi soldiers. Many of the Kurds in the North as well as the
Sunnis are
wary about the prospects of a Shia dominated security force roaming the
streets
of Baghdad, Kirkuk
and Mosul.
The
virtually autonomous Kurdish dominated northern part of the country has
been
functioning as an American protectorate. The Iraqi Sunnis have no love
lost for
the American occupation forces but fear that they could now be targeted
for
more sectarian attacks. Malliki has established a network of security
agencies
that report directly to his office as he prepares to contest in the
elections
scheduled for 2010.

MOVES TO PRIVATISE

OIL INDUSTRY

Malliki
saw it fit to open up Iraq’s
massive untapped oil and gas reserves to foreign bidders on the very
occasion
of “national sovereignty day”. Iraq
was among the first countries to nationalise its oil industry earning
it the
enmity of the West. The fields offered for exploitation by foreign
countries
hold about 43 billion of Iraq’s
115 billion barrels of crude reserves. Iraq has proven oil
reserves of 112
billion barrels and an estimated 150 billion barrels of untapped oil. Iraq has the potential of emerging as
the second
biggest oil producing country after Saudi Arabia. It is no
surprise
that the big oil companies like Shell, Exxon, BP and Total are making a
beeline
for Iraq.

The
Iraqi people do not want the control of their oil to once again revert
to
foreign companies. Oil workers unions in Iraq have strongly
protested against
the government’s move to once again privatise the industry. Under
pressure from
the unions and nationalist politicians, the government has decreed that
the
foreign oil firms will not be getting a long-term share of Iraq’s
oil.
Instead they will be allowed to work in the country for the next 20
years with
a 75 per cent stake in the operations. But many Iraqis continue to be
critical
about the government’s oil policy. They feel that the Iraqis have the
expertise
to exploit their hydro-carbon resources themselves. They also feel that
the
government is not doing enough to stop the Kurdish Regional government
from
signing lucrative contracts with foreign oil companies, completely
bypassing
the central government in Baghdad.

The
withdrawal of the American troops from the Iraqi cities marks the end
of the
“military surge” that the former American president George W. Bush had
ordered
to meet the military and security challenges posed by the Iraqi
resistance
forces. President Barack Obama has already signaled that the new
administration’s first priority is Afghanistan. That country
is now
witnessing an American troop “surge” of its own.

The
“troop surge” in Iraq
did not bring any succour to the millions of displaced people there.
The
refugee crisis in Iraq
has been described as the biggest since 1948 in the region. The
professional
middle class in Iraq
has voted with its feet, preferring to live in refugee camps or work
abroad.
The country still lacks basic electricity, water and sanitation
services. The
UN estimates that 4.7 million Iraqis have been turned into refugees
after the
American occupation started in March, 2003. The refugees are unwilling
to
return mainly due to the prevailing security situation—a legacy of
American
occupation.